Not guilty verdict in emu death

Galien man found guilty of misdemeanor.

July 12, 2012|DEBRA HAIGHT | South Bend Tribune Correspondent

Clark Thomas (Photo provided)

NILES — He might have started the "whole mess" by taking a friend to a Bertrand Township farm that was home to emus, but a Berrien County Trial Court jury decided that Galien resident Thomas Clark did not kill or torture a pet emu last October.

Clark, 21, of Buffalo Road in Galien, was on trial this week in Niles on two charges: a felony charge of killing or torturing an animal and a misdemeanor charge of larceny over $200 and under $1,000 in taking the dead emu.

The eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon and found Clark not guilty of the first charge and guilty of the second. The trial began Tuesday morning and jurors heard testimony from Clark, his co-defendant, the emu's owner and others.

After the verdict, Clark was immediately sentenced on the larceny charge by Berrien County Trial Judge Dennis Wiley. Wiley ordered Clark to serve 90 days in jail and pay $2,000 in fines and costs. A restitution amount will be determined in the future.

Wiley didn't mince words when it came time to sentence Clark on the larceny charge. "After you sobered up, you were a gutless little gutter snipe," he told Clark. "You didn't let her (emu owner Jean Wolf) know what happened. She had to make a public plea to find out information. You didn't even have the guts to help a poor lady in distress."

"You better start acting like a man rather than a little punk," he said. "Even when you were confronted by police, you didn't take responsibility. Don't talk to me about taking responsibility."

Wiley said Clark's apology and words of remorse sounded "very insincere." "You and your buddy got drunk, he's underage and you bought him beer and then you both went off in some stupid drunken idea of a good time," he said. "I don't know who did what but as Ms. (Assistant Prosecutor Cara) Wilkinson pointed out, it wouldn't have happened without you."

Wilkinson said during questioning of Clark, closing statements and her remarks before sentencing that it was Clark who put everything in motion since it was he who knew about the emu and where the farm was located. "You started this whole mess by taking Jack Keldsen to Jean Wolf's farm," she told Clark when he was on the stand.

During his closing statement, defense attorney Robert LaBre said Keldsen was not a credible witness and that his version of the events could not be corroborated. He also didn't spare his own client, calling the whole incident "a drunken journey to replicate (the movie) Jackass."

LaBre said after the verdict that he was very satisfied with it. "It was the right result. ... I think they made the right decision," he said. "There's no doubt he (Clark) needed to take the stand and own up to his participation."

Clark's co-defendant, Jack Keldsen, of New Carlisle, pleaded guilty in March to a reduced charge of attempted killing or torturing an animal and agreed to testify against Clark. He was sentenced in May to three years probation, 90 days in jail, 90 days on tether and 120 hours of community service as well as restitution, fines and costs.

The incident occurred in the overnight hours of Oct. 27 and 28 at Wolf's farm in Bertrand Township. Clark knew of the farm and the emu because he and his father had delivered hay to her in the past. After the emu was killed, the body was taken to New Carlisle where it was placed on an acquaintance's porch before it was then taken and dumped in the woods.

Keldsen testified Tuesday that it was Clark who hit the emu in the head with an aluminum baseball bat. He said Clark hit the flightless bird's head like he "was hitting a home run" and then used the bat to continue to beat the bird when it was on the ground.”

Clark gave a different version of events when he took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday. He said he and Keldsen had been drinking and said it was Keldsen's idea to go out to Wolf's farm to ride an emu in an attempt to replicate a scene from the movie "Jackass".

He said he stayed outside the pen while Keldsen went inside it with the emu. He said he was shocked when he saw Keldsen attack the emu, hit it in the head with a brick or rock and then strangle it.

Clark's and Keldsen's stories diverged not only on that point but also on whose vehicle was taken to drive to Wolf's farm, whether Clark went up to the house to see if anyone was awake and who dumped the dead emu's body on the porch of a mutual acquaintance in New Carlisle.

Clark testified that Keldsen drove to Wolf's farm and then drove Clark back to Galien before Keldsen took the emu and dumped it on the porch of the person in New Carlisle. Clark said he fell asleep after he got home in the early morning hours of Oct. 28 and his father and sister said that he was home that early morning.

Keldsen said they both drove vehicles to the Wolf farm, that Clark went up to the Wolf home and that both of them went to New Carlisle to dump the emu on the porch of a friend.

The emu's body wasn't found until about two weeks later when people discovered the animal in the woods. Testimony in court indicated that Keldsen or Keldsen and Clark together went back and took the emu off the person's porch and then dumped it in the woods.

Wolf testified the dead bird as looking fairly normal except for the beak being nearly torn off, one eye socket in the wrong place and the skin loose. She said she later took the body to a vet who could find no bullet holes. She then cremated the body. She said she knew Clark as the son of the man from whom she buys hay.